Plug into an audiobook today

I purchased a new smartphone recently. It took two days to figure out what I wanted, another to psych myself up to enter the store and less than 24 hours to fall in love with my purchase.

My old phone was nearly four years old. It had 16GB of storage. I spent a lot of time deleting photos in order to take one. I had the bare minimum of apps, too. My new phone has 64 GB. I’ve yet to receive the dreaded Storage Almost Full message. Even better, I finally had enough room download the OverDrive app and listen to my first audiobook ever: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple.

I’m a little late to the party with this title – and with the Library’s eMedia services in general. I highly recommend both.

The book is about Bernadette Fox, a quirky and elusive woman who was once the darling of the architect world, but left it all behind – but for what? The story tries to uncover the mystery through e-mails (some by Bernadette, others by woman who love to talk about her), news articles and other documents, but not before Bernadette disappears, leaving her 15-year-old daughter, Bee, to make sense of it all. Narrator Kathleen Wilhoite does a great job of distinguishing her voice to help listeners keep the colorful cast of characters sorted out, though there were times I had to remind myself Bee is 15; not 12.

If you haven’t visited the Library’s eMedia page, you should. Your Library Card is the ticket to free digital content for adults and children, with audio and digital books, online magazines – even local music through the Local Music Project. Upgrades to all delivery systems have made the process of downloading the materials even easier.

It used to be that ICPL's eMedia services were available to patrons who live in Iowa City, Hills, University Heights, Lone Tree, or rural Johnson County, while Coralville residents could use it if that had a valid Coralville Public Library card. However, since July 1, ICPL, Coralville and North Liberty Community Library have offered combined eBook and digital audiobook collections through OverDrive. We call this service Digital Johnson County. As someone who works in Iowa City but lives in North Liberty, this service has been a wonderful addition to my reading options.